Paula's Pie Project Blog

52 different pies in 52 weeks

Pie #64- Apple Pomegranate (Pi Day Pie) March 23, 2013

A friend of mine,  Trudy Sullivan Stoudamire,  sent me a message a few days before March 14th, official  “Pi Day”, to remind me of this fun, mathematical day ahead.  My boys were definitely excited for “Pi Day” since their school math teachers decided to go-big on the celebration of this mathematical formula day- 3.14. There were special math activities in the classrooms, hand-made posters hung on the school hallways and the cafeteria even served pumpkin “pi” to the students that day.

I wasn’t quite sure of what I was going to make at first, but I knew I had to come up with something thematically good in order to incorporate the 3.14 into my “Pi Day” pie.

Originally, I had bought a red pomegranate fruit when I was working on ideas for Pie #61, but my son Henry wanted cinnamon apple pie, so I had to forget the red fruit idea and go a different direction. The red pomegranate continued to ripen in my fruit bowl… so when I finally came up with concept of apple pomegranate pie with 3 parts apples, .14 parts pomegranates, I went to the store to buy apples and another pomegranate fruit. The problem was pomegranates were now out of season. I had bought my original fruit at the very end of it’s growing season, so now three weeks later there were none to be found.

Well, turns out, overly ripe pomegranates are still usable. They don’t mold, they just lose some of their juiciness. My guess is that if I had used a perfectly ripe pomegranate, the insides of my pie would have turned red, but I will test that hypothesis on Science Pie Day, when ever that is!

Here’s the crust recipe from Ken Haedrich’s book, Pie.  I used this for the very first time and it was marvelous! Oh, yes, I will be using this one a lot more in the future.

Extra Flaky Pie Pastry Recipe- by Ken Haedrich,

Extra Flaky Pie Pastry Recipe- by Ken Haedrich

For the pie filling, I made this up. Here’s the recipe:

Apple Pomegranate Pie ( Pi Day Pie)

Ingredients:

  • Extra Flaky Pie Pastry recipe- Double Crust
  • 3 parts apples or (5-6)  large granny smith apples
  • .14 parts pomegranate seeds or all seeds from (1) pomegranate fruit
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon of cinnamon.

Make your pie pastry. Mix filling ingredients and place into pie shell. Add double crust to top. Pinch together to form a decorative edge. Use a knife to cut slits into the top. ( I decorated my Pi Pie with a pi symbol using extra dough and a little bit of pomegranate juice for color.) Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

My overly ripe pomegranate fruit

My overly ripe pomegranate fruit

Rinsed pomegranate seeds

Rinsed pomegranate seeds

3 parts- Sliced Granny Smith aples

Sliced Granny Smith apples

3 parts apple + .14 parts pomegranate = 3.14 Pi Day Pie

3 parts apple + .14 parts pomegranate = 3.14 Pi Day Pie Ingredients

Extra flaky crust

Extra flaky crust

The apple and pomegranate fruit filling

The apple and pomegranate fruit filling

Pi pie ready for the oven

Pi Day Pie 3.14 (2013)

Pie #64- Apple Pomegranate (Pi Day Pie)

Pie #64- Apple Pomegranate (Pi Day Pie)